Sen. Sam McCann again faces questions about military service

Tuesday

When he won his legislative seat in 2010, state Sen. Sam McCann, R-Plainview, had to overcome allegations that he made up or exaggerated a military background.

That issue has re-emerged this year, as McCann is seeking another term and is challenged in the March 15 50th Senate District Republican primary by Bryce Benton, a state trooper from Springfield.

McCann said in 2010 that he signed up to be a U.S. Marine, but got injured in a construction accident before going to boot camp. He said at the time that he had been discharged from the military, but didn’t have that discharge paper and had asked the military for another copy.

Aaron DeGroot, Benton’s spokesman, said he sent an information request to the National Personnel Records Center, asking about a “William Samuel McCann.”

“We have been unsuccessful in identifying a military service record for the above-named individual,” said the Jan. 19 response from an archives technician. “This does not mean the subject did not have military service, only that we are unable to identify a record based on the limited information you have provided.”

"This is an old story, trotted out by my opponent right before the election," McCann said via email Tuesday evening. "As I've said before, in 1989, as a young man, I signed up at the Springfield recruiting station. I signed my contract and took the oath at the St. Louis MEPS (military entrance processing station).

"Because of the delayed entry program, I was told not to report until a couple months later," McCann continued. "During that time, I was working construction to make ends meet. An 80 pound load of shingles slid off a roof, and hit me on the ground below. It broke my back. The Marine Corps said that due to my injury, I would not be able to go forward with my service. I was never a veteran, so there are no discharge papers. This is just another attempt to create a last-minute controversy where none exists. My opponent would rather do things like this instead of talking about the real issues confronting struggling families."

No documentation

Benton, who is backed by Gov. Bruce Rauner, is also supported by an independent expenditure group, Liberty Principles PAC, run by Dan Proft, a Chicago radio talk-show host and senior fellow with the Illinois Policy Institute. Proft’s group as of this week has spent more than $2.4 million to help Benton get elected – including $522,859 paid Monday to Strategic Media Services of Arlington, Virginia, for television advertising, according to a filing with the State Board of Elections.

Liberty Principles in recent days has been running a television ad in which a narrator says that McCann “lied about serving in the Marines."

The Benton campaign’s news release included links to newspaper columns from 2010, and to a 2010 campaign video featuring McCann.

The Benton news release quotes McCann saying, in that video, that “One of the proudest days of my life was the day in 1989 when I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.”

The news release doesn’t include that McCann immediately went on to say in that video: “Unfortunately, I severely injured my back and wasn’t able to go to boot camp. My life took a different turn. Now, 20 years later, I’ve built a successful business and created jobs.”

The Benton news release also lists some of the military references McCann made in 2010, including that he did not produce any documentation of service or discharge. It also quotes people with service records including U.S. Reps. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, and U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Channahon, criticizing McCann.

“I am deeply disturbed to hear Sam McCann lied about his service in the U.S. Marine Corps,” said Kinzinger, a U.S. Air Force major.

“It’s sad that anyone would attempt to sell himself to voters as someone who served in uniform without even attending boot camp,” said Shimkus, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy.

Kayleen Carlson, Shimkus’ campaign manager, said the Benton campaign provided the document from the records center to Shimkus.

McCann, DeGroot said, “has had six years to produce documentation to prove his version of events, and he has not done so.”

Marine courage?

McCann, who in 2010 defeated then-Democratic Sen. Deanna Demuzio of Carlinville, had literature that year that said he was a “member of the U.S. Marine Corps (1989-1990), received an honorable discharge prior to completion of training due to an accident.”

He was also quoted in the Greene Prairie Press referring to “the courage I learned in the Marine Corps.”

McCann said at the time that he wasn’t sure of the context, but that he was referring to the testing and processing he went through to be a Marine. That included, he said then, his being given a booklet or paper that, as he recalled, described courage as not the ability to be unafraid, but the ability “no matter how afraid you are, you still do your duty.”

He also said at the time he wasn’t sure technically what kind of discharge he received, but had called it “honorable” because he knew it was not dishonorable.

McCann, whose district includes many state workers, says he was voting his district when he has backed bills that could allow binding arbitration to fashion a new contract between the Rauner administration and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Rauner vehemently opposed those bills.

Union support this campaign season for McCann has included $240,000 from the Illinois Education Association’s political action committee, and $25,000 from the PAC of the Illinois Federation of Teachers.

The primary is March 15, and Benton has been out of town in recent days to visit his father. Benton said on Facebook that his father is recovering from a double-lung transplant.

“He was discharged from the hospital Saturday, and I wanted to help him comfortably transition home,” Benton wrote. “While a political campaign is important, family is more important.” The candidate said he would return to a full campaign schedule as soon as possible.

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